"Africanized" Killer bee question

canislatrans54

canislatrans54

New member
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif I hate to do it...but I gotta show my ignorance: /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif I heard that our state [Kansas] is expecting an invasion of "Africanized" Killer Bees this spring.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gifCan anyone tell me what it is that makes these bees "Africanized"? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif

[serious answers, preferably! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif]
 
They are a hybrid of African and European honey bees. Pure African bees are deadly aggresive. The diluted "Africanized" version are considered "less lethal". /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif (inside joke)

There was a breeding experiment station in South America where they were trying to tone down the attitude problem. A storm wrecked the station and all the bees escaped. The African bees are well known for their unusually high honey making ability.
 
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I've heard that the further they migrate north the less agressive they seem to be. Less Afticanized if you will. We have them here in Arizona. They say that now all honey bees are Africanized here now. At first we had a few very bad attacks, and we still have a few a year, but it doesn't seem as bad as it did in the beginning. You can live with them, you just need to take bees seriously now.
 
They are more aggressive than the European Honey Bee. They will attack with less provocation and in much greater numbers (and chase you further).

They are actually better honey producers/pollinators but because of their intractability, they are more difficult to "keep".

They seem to be becoming less of a problem the further north they get, either because of an increase of European Honey Bee DNA in their genetic makeup, or it has been speculated, perhaps due to climactic differences.

They have killed over a thousand people since they escaped from that lab in Brazil. One victim (in Honduras?), was supposedly stung 800,000 times. He got his foot stuck in some rocks, and couldn't run away.
 
Thanks for the info, guys! Now I don't feel quite as stupid. I knew they had come up from S. America, but couldn't figure out that "Africanized" thing.
 
In all seriousnes though, we have them here. Usually, during the summers, they'll show up on a stop sign or in someone's tree and you'll hear of someone getting stung while mowing their lawn. Apparently the sound of a mower does something to provoke them.

I guess it's kinda like me on a Saturday morning and my neighbor getting up early and running his leaf blower.
 
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